SEPTEMBER 2005
FOOTNOTES BY FASTRAC
VictoriaDanceSeries.com
#11
DARK LAKE Heather Ogden with Artists of the Ballet in Swan Lake Photo by: Cylla von Tiedemann
Kudelka Makes Waves
In 1875, with a fee of 800 rubles in his pocket, Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky began work on what would become the most revered classical ballet of all time, Swan Lake. The story for the ballet had been created by Vladimir Begichev, the Manager of the Russian Imperial Theatres, culled from a variety of sources. The legend of a swan maiden had been popular for centuries in a variety of European cultures, taking various forms – but this tale of Odette, transformed into a swan by a spell that can only be broken with a declaration of love, was unique. The ensuing intrigue and tragedy leading from Prince Siegfried’s being duped into marrying the evil Odille was typical grist for the mill in the late 19th century. In fact, the creation of a new ballet relied heavily on the evocation of supernatural female forces like sylphs, wilis (the ghosts of young women who died from too much dancing), shades, water nymphs and swans. Swans themselves were considered to be the idealization of the feminine form. During Tchaikovsky’s creative life, the system for creating a ballet was well established. The author (or librettist) would select a story and transpose it into a
five or six-act oeuvre. The primary focus of these stories was to ensure that they featured enough opportunity to showcase the talents of the prima ballerina. The librettist constructed his story to ensure the prima would have a pas de deux with variations and coda. After the story was completed, the choreographer would set out the dances and the style of music required for each including their length and tempo. Some story locations dictated music and dances of a specific style – such as waltzes in a grand ballroom. As well as the requisite showcase dances for the prima ballerina, the premier danseur must be given his due, as were the soloists and of course, the corps de ballet. The choreographer was ever conscious of the need for crowd-pleasing pageantry. Once these components were laid out end to end with the story, the composer set to work. The scenic and costume designers most often continues >
FOOTNOTES
Aleksandar Antonijevic & Greta Hodgkinson with Artists of the Ballet in Swan Lake
Poto by: Cylla von Tiedemann
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The Victoria Dance Series Society is a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to dance presentation and education. Our mission is: to enhance the appreciation of dance in the Capital Region by presenting and developing professional dance and engaging the community in outreach programs. The Victoria Dance Series is governed by a Board of Directors that includes: Robert Milne, President Anne Russo, Vice President Nancy Glerup, Treasurer Jane Tice, Director Colleen Gibson, Director Lynda Raino, Director Our Staff is: Stephen White, Executive Producer Paula Jardine, Community Dance Artistic Director Bill Hamar, Administrative Assistant Ian Rye, Technical Consultant If you would like to be involved with the Series, please call: (250) 595-1829 or email: vicdanceseries@shaw.ca Footnotes is prepared by Stephen White and proofed by Anne Moon. NOTE: If you would like to help us save on postage and printing costs by receiving your newsletter as a PDF, via ecologically friendly email (address confidentiality ensured), let us know!
worked without intimate knowledge of the ballet for which they were creating their work. They were chiefly interested in designs that were opulent and, for the scenes, spacious enough to accommodate the dances of the corps and featured dancers. In almost every ballet of the period, there was a lake scene and the fashion dictated that, regardless of the period, female dancers always wore tiaras and jewels, even when dancing the role of humble peasants. When the first production of Swan Lake premiered in 1877, the original choreographer was damned in the press “Mr. (Vaclav) Reisinger’s dances are weak in the extreme…incoherent waving of the legs that continued through the course of four hours – is this not torture? The corps de ballet stamp up and down in the same place, waving their arms like a windmill’s vanes – and the soloists jump about the stage in gymnastic steps.” It wasn’t until after Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893 that the powerhouse classical choreographer Marius Petipa transformed the score into the masterpiece ballet we know today. Since that time there have been numerous other takes on the work, including James Kudelka’s for the National Ballet of Canada, which premiered in Toronto in 1999. “Every classic needs to be rethought with new logic and powerful archetypes to make it relevant for a new generation,” says Kudelka. In his version, Kudelka turns things upside down when he casts Prince Siegfried’s court as “a decaying bastion of martial values, repressive and authoritarian.” By contrast, the lake, usually portrayed as the evil wild domain of the treacherous Baron Von Rothbart, is portrayed as an idyllic natural setting. Kudelka says “Siegfried searches for a more flexible, egalitarian world and finds it in the country of the swans. Von Rothbart presides over this beautiful watery world and these wonderful swans, and his world will go on even after the court has been destroyed. Perhaps he’s Nature, which is sometimes cruel. He rules the world of which the court is but a small part.” Kudelka’s darker, more intensely sensual, imagining of the classic is quite a contrast to the original.
Also on the Program Victoria will see Act II of Swan Lake as well as three additional ballets: Full Circles, commissioned by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and choreographed by Kudelka in 1998. The pas de deux is set to music composed by Canada’s Ann Southam who has an extensive history of composing for modern dance as well as writing concert music that has been performed throughout Canada, the US and Europe. Kudelka’s Romeo and Juliet before Parting hails from 1990 and was originally commissioned for a film entitled Romeos and Juliets that featured a suite of works created by various choreographers and focused on the love-struck Shakespearean characters. This work is set to the music of Prokofiev. Finally, Balanchine’s Theme and Variations completes the program. This neo-classical ballet features strong corps work in counterpoint to lively solos and pas des deux. Balanchine created the work “to evoke the great period in classical dancing when Russian ballet flourished with the aid of Tchaikovsky’s music.” The finale features a cast of 26 dancers. The National Ballet describes the evening as an “all tutu” program. Certainly for the balletomanes in the crowd, the evening will provide an opportunity to see the company do what it does best – perform with grace and passion. FN
FOOTNOTES
It has been a significant time of change and growth at the National Ballet of Canada since it last visited Victoria in September 2003. In June 2004, Betty Oliphant, the original Ballet Mistress at the National and later founder and Artistic Director of the National Ballet School, passed away. Less than a year later James Kudelka stepped down as Artistic Director (May 18, 2005), after nine years in the top job. Both individuals have had tremendous impact on the development of ballet in Canada and of course, the company. Fortunately, for us, we get to keep the best part of Kudelka. He will remain at the company as Resident Choreographer, which means his brilliance as a dance maker will continue to be supported by the National and we can look forward to premieres of his works in the future. Kudelka’s tenure as Artistic Director was marked by a general revitalization of the company with a renewed sense of artistic purpose. The first company member to achieve the highest post at the National, Kudelka’s association with the National began when he arrived as a student at the school from Newmarket, Ontario, in the late 1960s. And while Kudelka was the first home-schooled Canadian talent to take the helm at the NBC, Karen Kain has become the second. Her appointment makes so much sense when one considers her long history and love for the company. Kain’s work as an Artistic Associate of the company in the past few years gives her insight into current administrative challenges, the largest of which will be the company’s transition to a new performance home in Toronto in the fall of 2006. The National Ballet will be the primary tenant of the Canadian Opera company’s glittering Four Seasons Centre at Queen St. W. and University Ave. The new facility, built at a cost of $181 million, is considerably smaller and thus, more intimate than the National’s current home at the Hummingbird Centre. The auditorium will seat 2,000, compared with the 3,200 at the Hummingbird. The most significant difference, however, is in the seating. The Four Seasons Centre has been designed in the style of a European opera house. Seats are in a horseshoe configuration, with seating on the main floor as well as four tiers above. At the Hummingbird, the company danced on a very
PRE-SHOW CHATS Since its inception nine years ago, the Victoria Dance Series has offered pre-show chats at no cost to ticket holders, in the lobby of the theatre prior to the evening’s performance. These informal conversations are intended to provide you with more information and insight into the evening’s production.
wide stage to an audience that fanned out from the performance area across the main floor and one balcony. Audience members will, for the first time, see other audience members across from them, watching the performance, so in turn, the experience becomes more self-conscious. The architects of the new venue, Diamond and Schmitt, claim that every one of the 2,000 seats affords an unobstructed view of the stage, and each seat is closer to the “action”. The orchestra pit has been designed to accommodate 75 to 80 musicians in the open and a total of 105 when the area below the stage is opened. By contrast, at the Royal the National will squeeze 30 musicians into our pit for their Victoria program. The facility also includes a dance studio, rehearsal room shaped like the stage, and the requisite dressing rooms, lounges etc. The largest impact for the National and for Karen Kain will be the increase in the number of performances demanded by the smaller venue. Currently, the National performs 68 times a year in Toronto. In 2006/07 this will increase to 93 performances. More performances demand a larger company. Over the next season, the National will add 16 dancers to its company of 54. The impact to the overall budget is expected to be about $3.5 million. It is a dynamic time at the National, but like the Grande Dame she is, the company will no doubt embrace the change with flexibility and become even more of a national treasure. FN
September 23 @ 7:20 pm Meet Artistic Director Karen Kain and Senior Ballet Master Peter Ottmann. Ms Kain has been beloved by Canadians from the beginning of her international career as a dancer, onto her recent appointment as Artistic Director of the National Ballet. September 24 @ 7:20 pm Senior Ballet Master Peter Ottmann will speak about his work with the dancers and how they prepare for the evening’s performance.
Heather Ogden & Guillame Côté in Swan Lake Photo by: Cylla von Tiedemann
NBC News
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Master Class with
KAREN KAIN September 24 11 am to 12:15 pm $25 1201 Fort Street (Truth Centre) Ms. Kain will teach a class to students with at least four years of dance training aged 14 years and older at Ballet Victoria’s new facility. Class size will be limited to 20. Register @ 380-6063
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FOOTNOTES
DANCE TOURS
Emerald City Dance Tour We had so much fun with our Big Apple Dance Tour (read Anne Moon’s recollections in this newsletter) last May that we’ve put together another, albeit, smaller tour to Seattle to see a performance of the Pacific Northwest Ballet on the weekend of November 4, 5 and 6, 2005. Details about the trip are included in a separate flyer that accompanies this newsletter. Founded in 1972 by the Seattle Opera Association, Pacific Northwest Ballet became an independent organization in 1977, at about the same time as Kent Stowell and Francia Russell took the helm as co-Artistic Directors. Over the next 27 years, Stowell and Russell grew the company and school so that today it is a $16.5 million operation with 49 dancers, 11,000 subscribers and almost $10 million in ticket sales annually, making it comparable in size with the National Ballet of Canada. The company has more than 100 ballets in its repertoire including works choreographed by Stowell, a large number of Balanchine works, company commissions, and classics from the ballet canon. They also have an independent PNB Orchestra. In 2003, the company moved into its new performance facility in the Seattle Centre. The excitement this past year has centred on the appointment of Peter Boal as the new Artistic Director. Boal is a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet, a company he joined in 1983 and retired from to take this position. Boal is a skilled instructor, having spent many years on the faculty of the School of American Ballet. The program for the evening includes Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco, Nacho Duato’s signature work Jardi Tancat set to Cat-
alonian songs, the world premiere of a new work by Marco Goecke, and Hail to the Conquering Hero, choreographed by Kent Stowell. The repertoire will certainly showcase the depth and range of the company. Also on our trip, we’ll be visiting the Tacoma Museum of Glass, which has a strong Canadian connection because the $63-million facility was designed by Vancouver’s Arthur Erickson. The 75,000square-foot building was Erickson's first major art museum in the United States and features his trademark use of concrete integrated with glass in provocative Modernist forms. Erickson's interest in designing buildings in response to their environment is demonstrated in the museum's horizontal profile, which ascends in a series of platforms from the banks of the Thea Foss Waterway to a rooftop plaza. The museum's most distinctive architectural feature, a tilted 90-foot-tall cone wrapped in stainless steel, is in part a functional chimney rising from the glass blowing ovens housed in the museum’s Hot Shop. The Museum of Glass houses 13,000 square feet of gallery space, outdoor exhibition space, a 180-seat theatre, Education Studio, the Hot Shop Amphitheatre where visitors can watch as glass blowers practice their craft. There is also a café and museum shop on site. Add to this a winery visit, some shopping, and free time to wander Pike Place Market and you have a great cultural getaway. FN If you’re interested in learning more call Bill Hamar at Blaney’s Travel: 477-3550 or bill@blaneystravel.com
FOOTNOTES
A Tasty Apple by Anne Moon A group of ballet fans took a bite of the Big Apple earlier this year and found it extremely tasty. Under the guidance of head chefs Stephen White, executive producer of the Victoria Dance Series, and his travel-agent partner, Bill Hamar, the 35 dance lovers just ate up New York, while helping support the goal of bringing exciting dance to Victoria. The arts feast got off to a heady start when an eagle-eyed traveler spotted Ted Danson, star of Cheers! in a front row seat on the Air Canada jet to New York. He was taller and thinner and grayer than we expected, underneath his porkpie hat, but the skeptics at the luggage carousel duly noted a chauffeur holding a sign: "Mr. Ted Danson." The celebrity spotting had begun. Some of us saw Jackie Mason in the lobby of our Edison Hotel; others spied Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Joan Rivers at the ballet. We all saw Caroline Kennedy, and Trudy Norman even got a little smile as she almost stepped on Caroline's heels. It's hard to pick out one activity as the highlight. We thrilled to the backstage tour of the New York State Theatre, where the New York City Ballet appears. Our guide, seasoned corps member Dena Abergel, came out in her stage make-up and tidy bun, to show us around. We even caught a brief music rehearsal, fingered the impossibly stiff tutus and then enjoyed Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 and Musagete, a tribute to ballet founder George Balanchine. We dressed for the gala at American Ballet Theatre, in the Metropolitan Opera House. New York's beautiful people were out en masse for us to gawk. Victoria, with its Gore-tex jackets and fleece vests seemed very far away. At Radio City Music Hall, a six-foot-tall Rockette came out to greet us as we toured the astonishing theatre with its specially loomed carpet and massive curtain. While Big Apple Walking Tours provided us with politically frank and informative commentary on Central Park and environs, our tour leaders conjured up a picnic for us in the park, in the shadow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They even provided
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urns of coffee before we tackled the museum. The day we left New York the same guide led us through the Wall St. financial area. Downtown, we noted the metal barriers that spring up from the street to stop would-be bombers and a few of us wandered off for a sombre moment to see the great hole that was the World Trade Center. The Harlem tour on Sunday intrigued us. Our guide, Mahalia, a perky Haitian Jew, even managed to show us an old time funeral, complete with glass coffin, horse drawn hearse and a church draped in purple crepe. We were guests at a rousing gospel service that featured three collections and a warm welcome for the Canadian visitors. One of the worshippers, wearing a gorgeous hat of her own creation, had made hats for Eleanor Roosevelt. "There are too many flowers," the severe Mrs. Roosevelt told her young milliner: "a bird is going to land on it." Afterwards we got a taste of the Harlem flavor with brunch at the Cotton Club and a chance for some of us to warble with the jazz singer. Some of us dined at Robert DeNiro's Tribeca restaurant, others took in Broadway shows. Many of us went to museums ranging from the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side, the just reopened MOMA in midtown, to the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side. We shopped, we dined. Two of us went to the Letterman show. Others found their way to the United Nations building. Some of us saw a videotaping of Mythbusters; others organized reunions with friends and family from the eastern part of the continent. It only rained on our parade once--and we got drenched as we were scurrying to make a theatre curtain. For most of the time the sun shone, New York sparkled and from the welcoming cocktail party to the final breakfast in the "Polish Tea-Room" our tourleaders were calm, kind and never once lost us. They are even cooking up another tour to New York in May 2006 to coincide with the Gala Opening of the American Ballet Theatre’s Spring Season.FN If you’re interested in learning more call Bill Hamar at Blaney’s Travel: 477-3550 or bill@blaneystravel.com
Tell a friend about the Victoria Dance Series and the benefits of subscribing. Share the wealth.
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FOOTNOTES
Stephen White. Photo by Stuart Copeland
DANCE SEEN Welcome to our 9th annual Presentation Series. To those of you joining us for the first time, we’re happy to have you come along for the adventure, and to our returning subscribers, I want to thank you personally for your continued support. Our last nine years have been all about tremendous growth. While most of you know about us by the shows that we present at the Royal and McPherson Theatres, there’s actually a whole lot more to us than that. As are the Belfry Theatre and Pacific Opera, we are a registered non-profit society and we have a committed Board of Directors who volunteers their time to meet each month and help decide the future direction of the organization as well as keep an eye on the progress we make each year. These folks are generous of their time because they believe in the importance of arts and culture as part of a healthy city. Since the beginning we have been out in our community, offering workshops and classes. You see, while we are committed to bringing the best classical and contemporary dance to Victoria, we are also very interested in enhancing everyone’s enjoyment and understanding of dance. The Victoria Dance Series is in the process of building a large-scale dance event that will take place in and around Victoria’s Inner Har-
Season Sponsor of the
Victoria Dance Series On behalf of the retailers at Mayfair Shopping Centre, “Enjoy the show!”
www.mayfairshoppingcentre.com
bour in the summer of 2007. We imagine this event to include spectacle, promenade, stilt walking, live music and dance of every genre. After the “performance” part of the evening, the audience will be invited to dance to live music in Victoria’s biggest street dance. In order to make this vision a reality, we will be offering a variety of workshops this season – most of which are free – that don’t require any training or background in dance. You can read about the Creative Dance/Creative Mobility workshop (starting in September) in this newsletter. Join us if you’re interested. Please help us spread the word. We hope to bring together all the dance studios and clubs in our region to help us create this production. This winter, we will launch events with live music, inviting everyone to exchange their dances with other people in the community in the spirit of collaboration. You can always find out more by visiting our website at www.VictoriaDanceSeries.com. I think you’ll be surprised at what you find there. Aside from up-to-date information about our programs you’ll find a library that includes bios and info on dance pioneers from the last century, a resource guide called “Dancing on the Island”, archived newsletters and more. Finally, I want you to know that we are always here to assist you. And we love to hear your response to our programs. Often the most effective way to reach us is to drop an e-mail to vicdanceseries@shaw.ca, or phone 595-1829. If it’s a ticket issue or a great idea you want to share, we’re all ears. Enjoy the season! FN Stephen White, Executive Producer
FOOTNOTES
Youth Pass We are pleased to once again offer our Free Youth Pass to students in the Greater Victoria area registered in Grades 8 through 12. With the Youth Pass, participants can purchase a rush seat to just about every performance on our series for $7.50. Members also receive breaks on Master Classes, and get chances to volunteer on a performance night and stick around to see the show free. We’ll begin accepting registrations for this year’s Youth Pass on October 1 @ 9 am. Go to www.VictoriaDanceSeries.com and click on Youth Pass. There you’ll get all the information you need and you can register to receive your complimentary pass in the mail. Unfortunately, there are no passes available for the National Ballet. FN
Sleep with a Dancer In January, the Victoria Dance Series is bringing a six-member dance company from Vancouver, Wen Wei Dance, to Victoria to work on a new piece that has been commissioned by a group of dance presenters from across the country. Wen Wei and his dancers will need a roof over their heads while they are here (January 9 through 27). If you have an extra room where a dancer could live for three weeks, please let us know. The dancers get a meal allowance so you have no obligation to feed them. In exchange, we’ll provide free tickets and an invitation to the private studio showing of the company’s work. FN Contact us at vicdanceseries@shaw.ca or 595-1829
Last Dance We are sorry to see two of our esteemed colleagues leave the Victoria Dance Series Board of Directors this year. Wendy Vernon has been a member of the board for over three years. She brought extensive board experience with her when she first joined us and it was she who in large part pushed us to become more organized at the board level. Wendy is a new grandmother, a busy dance instructor and President of the Greater Victoria Danceworks board, so she still has her work cut out for her, but her frank discussions and wit (not to mention generosity) will be missed. Anne Russo leaves a very solid legacy at the Victoria Dance Series. Anne was one of the founding members nine years ago, when then Producer Douglas Durand approached a few people in the community with the idea of starting a dance series. Anne’s contribution has helped shape who we are now and where we will head, largely because she led the charge to create the policies and procedures that help define how we conduct our business. The Series is a better and stronger organization because of the contribution of these two women. We will feel their absence at our meetings, but remember their contributions for a very long time indeed. FN
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Workshops CREATIVE DANCE/ CREATIVE MOBILITY FOR 40+ YEARS James Bay New Horizons (234 Menzies Street) September 26 – December 14 Mondays and Thursdays • 9 am –10 am Admission by donation A twelve week dance and movement class with choreographer/instructor Annemarie Cabri will employ rejuvenating movement patterns that create ease and joyfulness. Classes will aim towards creating an accessible movement piece as a group to enjoy together. REGISTER on-line at:
www.VictoriaDanceSeries.com
DANCE CREATION FOR ADULTS October 6 – November 24 Thursdays • 7:00 – 8:30 pm 8 weeks $45 ($55 after Sept 27) Quadra Arts Centre (Annex at Quadra School) 3031 Quadra St (@ Finlayson) Join class leader Kimberly Tuson in a joyful discovery of dance and movement. Kimberly brings over 20 years of dance performance and choreography into creative dance exploration. Dance Creation explores elements of dance drawing on metaphors from the life of trees, connecting to dance and movement creation. No experience necessary! All community adults welcome to take part. REGISTER by phone: QAC, 381-PATH (7284) Or, in person: Monday– Friday • 9:30 am – 4 pm at PATH Office, 901 Kings Road [lower entrance]
FOOTNOTES
Alberta Ballet dancers in Mikko Nissinen's The Nutcracker. Photo: Ivan Karabobaliev
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Give the Gift of Nutcracker This season, we are asking our patrons to help us provide tickets to the Nutcracker to be distributed to the less advantaged in our community. The Series is working with the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Victoria to assist us in distributing free tickets to kids in our community who might not otherwise get to see the presentation. A contribution of $50 will buy two tickets to Nutcracker. In exchange, you’ll receive a tax receipt and acknowledgment in the souvenir Nutcracker program. Go to www.VictoriaDanceSeries.com to donate over our secure server or phone 595-1829.
Is There an Auditor in the House? The Victoria Dance Series Society has grown to the extent that we can no longer get by with an annual Review Engagement of our finances and now require a full audit. The Series is, therefore, requesting proposals from a CA/CGA to audit our books on an annual basis. We would prefer to work with someone who has some familiarity with the Series and a love of dance. Our fiscal year-end is June 30. If you are interested, please call Stephen White at 595-1829 or email him at vicdanceseries@shaw.ca
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